Fuqi Beef Offal Slices with NO Fuqi?

The Summer Solstice is coming!

The torrid days begin after the Summer Solstice. What’s your special recipe to fight off the heat? Hot Pot?

For many Sichuanese, delicacies cure all the bad mood! That’s also why Sichuan is definitely the heaven for hotpot which stimulates our taste buds, but a paradise for cold dishes as well. Eating hot food is not as wise as having cold dishes in hot summer days.

Sweetness and spiciness intertwining, Fuqi Beef Offal Slices, one of the most popular cold dishes in Chengdu, will bewitch you with a wonderous feeling of cool summer!

Fuqi means married couples in Chinese, which makes it sound horrifying and scares many people away. Are there any ingredients from real Fuqi?

Photo by: 我是零食女王

Of course not! As a traditional dish of Chengdu, it was invented in the early 1930s when many night food stands or vendors roaming the streets sold a popular dish called Beef Offal Slices using beef tripe, heart, tongue and head skin as the main ingredients. Among them the most famous was the one made by Mr. Guo Zhaohua and his wife, and it was hence called Fuqi Beef Offal Slices.

Photo by: 你的腿毛

The appetizing dish features bright red color, savory and spicy tastes, soft, tender, glutinous and springy textures. It was inscribed on Sichuan Intangible Cultural Heritage List in 2011!

Photo by: 我是零食女王

It is renowned for a more palatable chic name abroad, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, and once awarded the Appetizer of the Year in 2017 by GQ magazine. It is more of a Sichuan specialty than an appetizer! Have a try!

See you next time, and today, You Look Yummy!